Insulated pocket bun
The present disclosure describes a bun having a pair of cavities formed therein. The cavities include inner walls which are browned. The cavities form segregated areas which are suitable for receiving separate fillings for making a sandwich. The bun has an insulating wall separating adjacent cavities. The insulating wall may be thicker than the other walls in the bun or may further contain cavities or through-holes to further reduce thermal transfer between any fillings with different temperatures that may be located in the cavities. The browned inner walls in each of the cavities help prevent the bun from getting soggy.
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This application is a Continuation-in-Part of U.S. application Ser. No. 14/152,074 filed Jan. 10, 2014, which is a divisional of U.S. application Ser. No. 13/553,868 filed Jul. 20, 2012, the disclosure of which is hereby incorporated by reference.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTIONA typical sandwich is formed having a filling disposed between two pieces of bread. A hamburger is one common sandwich, with a ground beef patty, vegetables and condiments disposed between an upper and lower bun. Sometimes the bread is hinged, such as is used with a hotdog or sausage. The common failing of these types of sandwiches is that they can be difficult to eat tidily when on the go—the sandwich filling can leak out of the bread while being eaten. As such an improved bun is needed for containing sandwich filling. The disclosure provided herein describes an improved pan for baking a bun suitable for use in making a variety of sandwiches (including, but not limited to, hotdogs, sausages, hamburgers, sub sandwiches, loose meat sandwiches, among many others).
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTIONThe present disclosure describes a pan for preparing an improved bun suitable for making various types of sandwiches. The pan described herein is composed of a base plate, a housing, an ejector plate and a divider. The pan, when assembled, is shaped to form a pocket bun therein. The pan is designed to be disassembled in a way to allow ready ejection of the pocket bun from the pan.
The pan may include a single chamber for producing a single bun, or multiple chambers for producing multiple buns from a single pan. One chamber may include a single male mold for producing a bun having a single cavity, or multiple male molds for producing a bun having multiple cavities. The divider separates the chambers and may include openings to allow buns in adjacent chambers to form a baked connector therebetween for holding the buns together during packaging.
The pan of the present disclosure includes further improvements over previous pans, including providing a pan with means for ejecting deep-draw goods from the pan such as through a pneumatic system or use of ejection pins. In one configuration, the pan of the present disclosure produces a bun having a plurality of cavities, such that food stuffs are independently insertable into each cavity. In an additional configuration, the shape of either the exterior of the bun or the cavity of the bun is formed with a distinctive shape so as to provide unique brand-identifying capabilities.
A preferred embodiment of this invention has been chosen wherein:
A preferred embodiment of this invention has been chosen wherein:
The present disclosure describes a pan 10 suitable for preparing a pocket bun 12. Pocket bun 12 is a molded object one embodiment of which is shown in
As described herein, pan 10, and associated parts described in detail below, are referred to as having upper and lower ends. These designations are for ease of reference herein, with the upper end referring generally to the open top of pan 10, and the lower end referring generally to the base of pan 10 opposite the open top. It is understood that as used, pan 10 is positionable in any number of orientations, and as such any reference to upper and lower is not seen as limiting.
Pan 10 is formed from a group of nestable parts: a base plate 20, a housing 22, an ejection plate 24 and a divider 26, as shown assembled in
Housing 22, as shown in
Ejection plate 24 is defined as a generally flat plate having an outer edge 50. With pan 10 assembled, ejection plate 24 overlies lip 40 of housing 22. A notch 52 forms an indentation in edge 50, with notch 52 sized to straddle guide 42 when pan 10 is assembled, thereby notch 52 locates ejection plate 24 relative housing 22, as shown in
Divider 26 is defined as an upright plate overlying ejection plate 24 and subdividing the interior of housing 22 into multiple chambers. In the embodiments shown in
It is contemplated, such as is shown in
Referring now to
In one embodiment, a bun is formed having a pair of inner chambers. This embodiment is useful for building a three-layer sandwich, such as bun-filling-bun-filling-bun, as is common at some fast food restaurants. An example of this embodiment is shown in
One advantage of bun 12 formed by pan 10 over prior art breads is that pan 10 forms a bun where both the outer surface and the cavity surface of bun 12 has a browned surface. Most buns, for example a common hamburger bun, have a browned outer surface, but the inner surface is not browned, but is formed by splitting the bread open. The present bun 12 includes an inner cavity having a browned surface such that when a filling is placed in the bun the filling contacts a browned surface and the browned surface serves to minimize the bread becoming soggy by resisting absorption of moisture from the filling. In this way, pan 10 bakes a bun 12 which resists becoming soggy.
The outer surfaces 13, 15, and 17 of bun 12 are browned either by direct contact from heated air when baking (such as is the case at the open top of pan 10), or by conductive heat transferred from pan 10 to the bun. Base plate 20 includes apertures 28 through which heated air enters the internal cavity of male mold 30, such that male mold 30 is heated during baking so as to brown the inner cavity 16 of bun 12. Browning the inner cavity 16 of bun 12 provides the beneficial effect of forming a filling-accepting portion of bun 12 which is resistant to becoming soggy.
Pan 10 is formed from a material sufficient at least to withstand the heat of baking, to retain shape when baking, and to transfer heat to brown bun 12 when baking. Such materials include, but are not limited to, aluminum, steel and other metals, silicone, tempered glass, ceramic, or composite. Any of such materials may include a non-stick coating.
Pan 10 is formed having an open top wherein the open top allow gases to escape from the pan when bun is being baked.
The bun 12 has an insulating wall 70, shown in
It is understood that while certain aspects of the disclosed subject matter have been shown and described, the disclosed subject matter is not limited thereto and encompasses various other embodiments and aspects. No specific limitation with respect to the specific embodiments disclosed herein is intended or should be inferred. Modifications may be made to the disclosed subject matter as set forth in the following claims.
Claims
1. A single piece, multi-cavity insulating bun comprising:
- a body formed from baked bread having a continuous outside wall with an end surface, a flat surface, and a side surface extending therebetween, said flat surface has a first opening defining an open mouth to a first cavity and a second opening defining an open mouth to a second cavity, said end surface oppositely located from said flat surface, said first cavity receiving and retaining a first filling being a heated meat product having a first temperature, said second cavity receiving and retaining a second filling being a chilled food product having a second temperature, said first temperature being above ambient temperature, said second temperature being below ambient temperature, said first filling remaining separate from said second filling, said body having a third temperature, said third temperature being between said first temperature and said second temperature;
- an insulating wall located directly between and separating said first cavity from said second cavity, said insulating wall having a flat surface coplanar with said flat surface on said body, said insulating wall continuously extending between opposing sides of said outside wall to define said first and second cavities, said insulating wall impeding thermal transfer between said first filling and said second filling;
- said insulating wall has an insulating cavity contained within and spaced from said outside wall, said insulating cavity extending from said flat surface toward said end surface, said insulating cavity having an interior surface intersecting said flat surface and terminating before said end surface, said insulating cavity separate from and located directly between said first cavity and said second cavity; and
- said first and said second cavities forming distinct chambers in said bun separated by said insulating wall and said insulating cavity within said insulating wall, said insulating wall extends from one opposing end to another opposing end, said cavities having an inside surface intersecting said flat surface at said opening, said outside wall being free of said insulating cavity.
2. The bun of claim 1, wherein said insulating cavity is centered in a thickness of said insulating wall between said first and second cavities.
3. The bun of claim 2, wherein said insulating wall has a plurality of said insulating cavities.
4. The bun of claim 1, wherein said cavities having positive draft with respect to said intersecting flat surface, said body having an outside surface intersecting said flat surface and having negative draft with respect to said flat surface.
5. The bun of claim 4, each of said cavities having a depth defined by the distance between said reference surface and a closed bottom, each of said openings having a width defined by the largest distance between opposing edges of said mouth, said depth being larger than said width.
6. A single piece, multi-cavity insulating bun comprising:
- a body formed from baked bread having a continuous outside wall with an end surface, a flat surface, and a side surface extending therebetween, said end surface opposite of and spaced from said flat surface, said flat surface has a first opening defining an open mouth to a first cavity and a second opening defining an open mouth to a second cavity, said first cavity receiving and retaining a heated filling having a first temperature, said second cavity receiving and retaining a chilled filling having a second temperature, said first temperature being warmer than said second temperature, said heated filling being separate from said chilled filling, said body having a third temperature being between said first temperature and said second temperature;
- an insulating wall located directly between and separating said first cavity from said second cavity, said insulating wall having a flat surface coplanar with said flat surface on said body, said insulating wall continuously extending between opposing sides of said outside wall to define said first and second cavities, said insulating wall impeding thermal transfer between said heated filling and said chilled filling;
- said insulating wall having an insulating cavity located directly between said first and said second cavity, said insulating wall has an insulating cavity extending from said flat surface toward said end surface, said insulating cavity spaced from said outside wall, said side surface being free of said insulating cavity; and
- each said cavities forming distinct chambers in said bun separated by said insulating wall and said insulating cavity, said insulating wall extends from one opposing end to another opposing end, said cavities having an inside surface intersecting said flat surface at said opening.
7. The bun of claim 6, wherein said insulating cavity extends through said end surface.
8. The bun of claim 7, wherein said insulating wall has a plurality of said insulating cavities.
9. The bun of claim 6, wherein said insulating cavity is centered in a thickness of said insulating wall between said first and second cavities.
10. The multi-cavity bun of claim 6, wherein said insulating wall is thicker than said outside wall.
11. The bun of claim 6, wherein said cavities having positive draft with respect to said intersecting flat surface, said body having an outside surface intersecting said flat surface and having negative draft with respect to said flat surface.
12. The bun of claim 11, said first and second cavities having a depth defined by the distance between said flat surface and a closed bottom, each of said openings having a width defined by the largest distance between opposing edges of said mouth, said depth being larger than said width.
13. The bun of claim 6, wherein said heated filling is a meat patty or sausage.
14. The bun of claim 13, wherein said chilled filling is condiments, vegetables, or sauce.
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Type: Grant
Filed: Mar 21, 2017
Date of Patent: Sep 5, 2023
Patent Publication Number: 20170188595
Assignee: (South Bend, IN)
Inventor: Robert Mayernick (South Bend, IN)
Primary Examiner: Stephanie A Cox
Application Number: 15/464,838
International Classification: A21D 13/32 (20170101); A21D 13/33 (20170101); A21D 8/06 (20060101); A47J 37/01 (20060101); A21B 3/18 (20060101); A21B 3/13 (20060101);